Ford Freestar Transmission Problems

Comments

I have known for about a year that my van wasn't acting right. I have a 2004 Mercury Monterey with 68,000 miles on it. I know nothing about cars, but could tell that something was wrong. The light for the transaxle has been flashing for years off and on. Was told by Ford that it was nothing....just to ignore it. The automatic doors work sometimes, not others. If someone pulls on the door of the van while it is locked, the alarm goes off, but the door opens. The heated seats haven't worked in years. The problem is that every time we have had it looked at, no one can figure out what the problem is.

Yesterday we were driving back from a trip and decided to stop for a meal. As we pulled off of the interstate, the van started going into neutral and slipping when my husband tried to accelerate. We did make it home, but as we drove into the driveway it would not make it up a small hill. This morning I tried to leave and it starts and the RPMs rev up, but it won't move. I'm so frustrated since I have wanted to trade it for so long. The problem is that since it's a Ford, it isn't worth very much. Now I regret not trading it sooner!!!

Heather,If it is any consolation; You are not alone. We were struggling financially even before our van quit working and we are struggling even more now. We still have not recovered from it financially and it will be a year in December! On the bright side, I really believe that this thing is about to take off. The more people that post their story, the more people will know about it. At the very least, other families will be forwarned of the danger. Also, at some point, some media outlet, news magazine or news organization will take an interest and take it to the next level. In the meantime, you can post your complaint on the NHTSA website rather than via a letter. They will at least have to acknowledge that they received it and there will be an electronic record of it. More mportantly, it will be one more bit of proof that they knew that this problem existed and took no action. They need to be held accountable as well as Ford because it is their job to protect families like ours from companies like this! I hope that you have the resources to pay for your repair and get you van back on the road soon. Hopefully, someday we will all be reimbursed by Ford for this disaster that they KNOWINGLY perpetrated on us all.

I understand completely! We had to rent a Toyota Sienna for 2 weeks while our van was repaired. Let me tell you, the Toyota is a masterpiece of a vehicle. As soon as we are able, we will unload the Freestar and get a Sienna. he problem right now is that the Ford has a very low resale value, (Shocking, I know!). Even with the money we would get from selling the Freestar, we still can't afford anything new. As far as dateline, I have been trying to get the attention of my local media outlets, including my local NBC affiliate, WBAL, Channel 11 in Baltimore, MD. I have been told, off of the record, that no one will touch this story for fear of losing ad revenue from Ford.Here is the kicker though, if we get it to the proportion of the Explorer debacle from a few years ago, it would be ratings death for the media to NOT cover it. The problem is, in order for it to get to that level, either someone will have to be killed as a result of this defect or some sharp, media savy attorney will have to get ahold of it, or someone with some connections to the right people could bring it to their attention. the good news is that, starting with this webpage and these 300 + posts, we have a really excellent grass roots movement underway. So, enjoy your vacation and stay tuned! Don't let this go. That is what Ford is counting on!

Update: After several phone calls to Ford customer service, we were able to get our cost for the torque converter fix on our 2004 Monterey reduced from approx $1500 to $250. Our dealership knocked $400 right off the bat and contacted Ford for us, but then said that was the best they could do. I told our dealership rep that I wasn't picking the van up until I spoke to Ford customer service. I then called the Ford helpline 1-800-392-3673, made my case, and kept calling for 3-4 days until I got an answer. Again, we have very low miles on our Monterey and the 3 yr warranty had expired. I can only recommend anyone with the same problem should be persistent, go through your dealership first, then Ford, and just keep at it. We had some success (not a total victory, we're still out $250 for the fix + $350 for a rental). Good Luck.

I was backing out of the drive going an incredible 2 miles an hour when the transmission decided to stay stuck between neutral and 1/100 the first gear speed. Made it to the stop sign at he end of the street ( about 50 feet from the driveway ) and just barely got it back up into the driveway. This vehicle was babied and well maintained and still you get this? I work at Ford and I'll be damned if I ever buy anything from them again! :lemon:

Consider yourself very lucky. If you don't mind answering, did you have the 30K transmission flush done prior to your transmission failure and did you receive a rebate when you purchased your Monterey? Your answers will be very illuminating and will greatly assist the rest of us whom Ford has left hanging with $3000.00 + repair bills. Let us know how your torque converter holds up and, if you think of it when you pick your van up, ask the dealer what makes the new part any better than the old one and how long can you expect it to last.

I did not have a 30,000 mile flush, but I let them know that I knew it was not required, just recommended. I can't remember if we got a rebate, I'm thinking we did not. I did, however, purchase the extended service plan when I purchased the vehicle (much to my husband's chagrin because we live 20 min. from the dealership), that covered all oil changes and service maintenance up to 20,000 miles. It added a good $30-$40 per month to my payment. I didn't think to ask the service manager about the part, my young child was running around the waiting room. I do credit my dealer service manager with helping a lot. He called and e-mailed Ford to see about the resolution and if we could get it resolved. He was very supportive and did not brush me off, nor did he try to give me any excuses. I hope this information helps.

I have a 2004 Ford Freestar with about a 100K on it. last week I parked the car in the garage with no problem the morning after I started the car, but it won't move??? I brought someone to take a look at and we spend a few $$$ trying to find a quick and cheap way to fix it, but it seems that it is bigger than I thought.

More than likely, your Torque converter has failed and caused metal filings to enter the transmission. This results in total transmission failure in which I, as well as most on this forum have experienced. I wouldn't waste alot of money trying quick fixes. Just take it to a transmision shop or the dealer and they'll diagnose it. I just had mine repaired two weeks ago and it cost me $3,800. I got a 3 year and 100,000 mile warranty.

Do like everyone else has and file a complaint to the NHTSA and also call a ford representative. This may reduce your overall cost.

I hope that it's something simple for you but what you described are the tell-tell signs.

Sorry, but I'm just a grunt millwright way at the bottom of the food chain. But if it's any consolation they don't treat the rank and file worker any better when the **** hits the fan about your vehicle. Why should they? It's the joys of payroll deduction.

on july 22 my 2006 freestar with 52200 miles no longer had a working tranny. My sister,the kids and I were left stranded 2hours from home with no warning signs. dealer first told me $3200 for new tranny because the plantier? gears were gone. then called back 2 days later and the price went to $4200. we towed the van home and when i called ford they said they could not even open a case without the van being at a dealer. :mad: I have already paid $95 for one dealer to tell me i have a no tranny now thy want me to pay another one. The good news is that we stopped at mcdonalds 4 drinks and werent on the freeway with concreate walls. At least we are still alive. How many are going to be killed before Ford does something :confuse:

Thank goodness no one was hurt. The scary thing is that, everytime this happens and no one gets hurt, the odds become greater that the next incident will result in a serious injury or a death. Ford really needs to demonstarte leadership and confront this issue headon by standing by their customers. The financial toll alone is killing American families like ours. Our incident took place in November of 2007 and we still havn't even put a dent in the principal of the loan we had to take out to pay for a rental and the repairs. It makes me sick that an American Company that American consumers like us have supported to the tune of billions of dollars collectively and, in my case, approaching two hundred thousand dollars individually, would treat us in such a way. I guess it is no wonder that Ford is withering on the vine in North America and has to claim in its TV ad that, "Our quality is now as good as Toyota!" How embarrasing is that? When have you ever heard a company proclaim, "We are finally as good as our competition! It only took us 50 years, but we finally did it!" Lo and behold, Toyota rules the roost and why? BECAUSE THEY BUILD A BETTER PRODUCT AND THEY STAND BEHIND THEIR PRODUCT! Please don't forget to report your incident to NHTSA on their website. It will be one more close call that they can't ignore. Also, stay tuned and keep us informed as to your progress!

Outstanding! Thank you for taking the time to do that. It is very important that NHTSA have as many complaints on file as possible. That way, at some point, somebody in a position of authority over there will have no choice but to stand up and take notice and do the right thing, we hope.

Well add me to the list of transmission failures for this hunk of junk. We have had nothing but issues with our 05 Freestar since the day we bought it. It has been in the shop 3 times because the TRAC will shut off after driving for about 5 minutes. Then the check tires light will come on. The tires are fine and the van was into Ford 3 times for this while the van was under warranty. That is besides the point. My wife was driving down a major highway yesterday with our two kids during rush hour and the van flipped itself into neutral just like every other story on this board. She luckly had the presence of mind to get to the shoulder before she slowed to much. There were no warning signs, etc. I took it to our local garage that I have been going to for years and the owner looked at me and said I will bet you 50.00 its the torque converter!! He said straight up for me to take the van over to Ford and have them look at it and ask them for assistance. I was just like holy crap, this happens that much that you know all this as soon as I bring my car in. What stings even more is that the van has 38255 miles on it!!! Only 2k over the warranty!!! The roadside assistance man wouldnt even talk to my wife when she called and we had to pay to get it towed!! I will keep everyone posted about the end result.

Please tell us everything they say when you get to the dealership. My guess is that they will act like they have never heard of this before and then they will blame you for not having the trans fluid changed at 30K miles. One way or another, report your incident to NHTSA via their website. This is very important! It is especially important that give all the details like you did in your post. at some point, God willing, NHTSA will wake up and hold Ford accountable for this disaster.

We are still doing are part to inform our government entities about this Ford mess. We have recently posted some statistics http://corporateabuse.net/2008/08/an-update-to-our-ford-article/, and we continually e-mail Ford for answers about this mess. So keep on fighting Ford, and make as much noise as possible. Oh and BTW lawyers have been hitting this particular article heavily, some are corporate lawyers, others are civil. We will not give up on this battle, so please help us.

I made a complaint on ConsumerAffairs.Com and they have decided to feature my story so it should be up in about 24 hours this is what they saidThanks for the consumer report you filed with us recently. We appreciate your telling us about the situation you encountered.

Your complaint has been selected for publication on our site and will appear within the next 48 hours.

Even if you are not able to achieve satisfaction individually, you will at least have the comfort of knowing that thousands of consumers will see your complaint, perhaps enabling them to avoid a similar misfortune. Also, our site is visited regularly by law enforcement agencies, local and national media and consumer organizations and we work closely with all of them to help identify consumer concerns.

OMG I just had the same thing happen to me last night 08/04/08 I turned out into traffic on a state route and my van just started coasting just like it had popped into nuetral. I had to coast to the side of the road after nearly causing the cars behind me to pile up after everyone had to hit the brakes to keep from hitting me. I have only owned this van since Jan 2008 and have only 76 K on it. I can not believe this is happening to me. I guess hoping it would be something minor is out of the question. Please let me know what the website is to file a complaint.

I too have a 2004 Monterey. My transmission went out at 44,000 miles. I had the extended warranty and figured everything would be taken care of. Ford had other ideas. Since I had not changed the transmission fluid at 40,000 miles they said the extended warranty was not valid any longer. It cost me $3500 (at AAMCO, not Ford. I will not give them a penny). Read through the postings on this website. You will find out the proper places to lodge your complaint. As this website grows I am getting more optimistic that eventually Ford will have to do the right thing. Just follow the correct paths to notify as many people as possible. Jim Genevese is the most knowledgeable on this situation. Good luck. It is a shame that you have joined our little club. I wish you the best.Kelly Lilly :lemon:

Again, thank goodness no one got hurt. It is amazing that this happens so often and no one has been hurt or killed. Sadly, the odds of this type of tragedy are getting shorter and shorter. It is a shame, in the most literal sense of the word that Ford continues to sit idly by while thousands of families who counted on them, their reputation, and their marketing of these vans as, "The safest in their class," are ruined financially because their transmission has already failed or are sitting ducks, waiting for this to happen to them. What I really don't understand is how the thousands of moms who work for Ford at all levels of the chain of command could sit idly by and do nothing. I know that my wife would stand up, even at the risk of losing her job, and do the right thing here. Anyway, the website to register your complaint with is NHTSA. They are the govermnet agency who's job it is to protect the consumer from situations just such as this, warn the public, and hold the manufacturer responsible. So far however; they have not done their job. Do not let that discourage you from lodging your complaint. The more complaints that they get, the harder it will be to keep their heads buried in the sand. Moreover, if, God forbid, their is a fatality that can be linked to this defect, they can't say that they were not informed. (My belief is that there have already been fatalities but they just havn't been properly linked to this defect. Due to the nature and mechanics of the failure and the resulting lack of control over the vehicle's speed, the odds are that a fatal, or near fatal, collision has already been caused by this defect.)

:mad: Add me to the list at 82000 miles. On Jul 29, 2008, I was driving home from a local amusement park when I has to stop at a red light. When I tried to go when the light turned green, all that happened was the engine just revved up. I had it towed to a transmission shop to have it looked at and they told me that the torque converter had blown up and that the valve body inside the tranny was shot. Well long story short, the bill was $3060.00. The van is barely worth that if I were to trade it in. This is not the first issue that I have had with this vehicle. In Apr 2006, my wife was pulling into our bank when a torsion bar broke off the rear axle. Luckily she was only going ~5mph when it happened. When we took it to the dealer, the service writer told me that he had never seen this before. We called Ford's customer service and were told that we were out luck. I have been a Ford guy all my life but after owning this van and getting the runaround from Ford, I will NEVER buy another Ford in my life.

Just to let you know that my Freestar :lemon: is a 2007 and this problem has been happening since january of this year. Ford has tried to fix it on 5 different occassions... and when the 6th incident happened they were more concerned if I pushed the button of the computer they put in my van to record problems then my safety. Lets say i was too concerned for my life to push a dam button. I left the van on the road called Ford to pick it up (this was on May 30) and have now since stopped all payments to ford and have gotten a lawyer involved.... It is true what Jim says that Ford denies this problem, they even had the nerve to ask me to let them try and fix it one more time... so i told them sure go ahead then get your wife and kids to drive around in it and tell me how you feel. I am sure this will be a long battle but I will not give up... Any advise/help would be greatly appreciated. :mad:

I used this van daily for work as well as drive my 3 kids around I just thank God that nothing serious happened to them.